Don't drink the Kool-Aid.

Well, the trial of the summer is over. No, not Kobe. Ohio v. Donkers. You know, the woman who was arrested for breastfeeding while driving her car at 65 mph on the Ohio Turnpike, and whose husband claimed that according to their faith, he should be the one to stand trial because he is responsible for his wife's conduct and he's the only one allowed to punish her for her deeds. She was charged with child endangerment and a handful of lesser charges; sadly, he was not charged with being a lunatic.

Fascinating trial. Donkers ended up representing herself, as the public defender wouldn't use only the Bible as their defense, and her husband wasn't allowed to represent her. (Didn't stop him from calling out comments from the gallery of the courtroom, until the judge informed him that this wasn't The Jerry Springer Show.) She admitted to breastfeeding while cruising along at 68 mph, while simultaneously talking to her husband on the cell phone and writing down notes about another lawsuit they're involved in. And that she'd taken both hands off the wheel when she was moving the baby, while tooling down the highway. She had the car in cruise control; that makes it okay. And with all of this, she thinks she didn't behave recklessly. The court acquitted her on the child endangerment charge (he said that the State's case didn't show it, as the troopers saw only the child on her mother's lap, but no feeding -- and yet, she testified to the breastfeeding while driving while on the cell phone while taking notes), and found her guilty on the others: violating the child-restraint laws, driving without a valid driver's license, and fleeing from the police. Sentencing has been postponed pending further investigation of the defendant.

It's interesting that the husband has threatened to take this case all the way to the Supreme Court. Howso? Because he believes that the Supreme Court doesn't exist (at least the way the rest of us do - as established pursuant to Article III of the US Constitution). On one of his "voluntary tax" argument websites, he argues that the Article III Supreme Court has never been established.

What a bizarre little cult they belong to. In addition to the husband-is-responsible-for-the-wife strictures, other tenets of their faith that came out during the trial include a disregard for governmental licensing (they don't believe in, and thus don't have, driver's licenses, and they married themselves without benefit of a marriage license), and for governmental regulation (they don't believe in, and thus don't have, social security numbers). The cult believes you don't have to pay taxes, and you can become a "Sovereign in good standing" (what we mortals would call a "member") by sending them $100 every year - and you don't even have to leave your real faith to become a member.

This trial been immortalized in Dave Berry's blog.

Now, they've moved on to California. Arriving too late to register for the gubernatorial recall election, it appears. Too bad: they'd have made what looks to be an otherwise boring recall campaign interesting.